Bioammonia may be a 100% natural fertilizer that can be made from biomass and oxygen obtained from air. More than 1.5% of the world's total energy consumption is currently used for ammonia production. This number is predicted to increase to 3% because of growing demands in India and China.
Production of ammonia from non-fossil fuels can have a significant impact on global warming by reducing the amount of natural gas and other fossil fuels that are being used for this purpose. High margins may allow a benefit from the invention, even when there is price competition for cellulosic feedstocks. Fertilizer is a high profit opportunity for the use of cellulosic feedstocks, and the invention may allow favorable competition against all other cellulosic businesses.
Fertilizer demand is growing worldwide, while supplies are constrained. The price of natural gas drives the price of ammonia. In the U.S. natural gas supplies are limited and our country imports a significant amount of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which in turn creates an even larger upward pressure on ammonia prices.
The production of bioammonia makes local sense. The product can make uses of local renewable resources, local production facilities, and local dissemination of ammonia into local markets, thereby creating regional agricultural economic benefits. Because the product can be manufactured from biomass, bioammonia can be considered to be an organic fertilizer. Bioammonia may be 100% recyclable and 100% environmentally clean given the fact that it can be derived from biomass and may end up in the soil to create more biomass. Hydrogen is derived from Mother Earth's biomass while the nitrogen comes from Mother Earth's atmosphere. Finally the bioammonia that is produced may be recycled back into Mother Earth's soil.
US Patent Application No. US 2006/0228284 A1 provides a process for producing ammonia using high pressure gasification to make syngas from a carbonaceous material. A quick analysis of the thermodynamic equilibrium shows that a significant amount of methane may be coproduced. This methane may be an undesirable component that can act as a reaction diluent in the ammonia loop, and can thereby result in a significant loss of efficiency.
Thus a need exists for an improved process for making ammonia from biomass. A further need exists to reduce the amount of methane in the biosyngas that may leave a gasifier during a process for making ammonia from biomass.